December 8, 2016

MIT researchers have designed a new machine-learning system that can learn by itself to extract text information for statistical analysis when available data is scarce.

This new “information extraction” system turns machine learning on its head. It works like humans do. When we run out of data in a study (say, differentiating between fake and real news), we simply search the Internet for more data, and then… read more

5000 nanochannels control release; can deliver medicinal doses for several days or a few weeks, also effective for HIV and damaged joints

December 2, 2016

A new drug-delivery system based on an tiny implantable capsule could “revolutionize” the delivery of medicine to treat cancer and a host of other diseases and ailments, according to researchers at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA).

“The problem with most drug-delivery systems is that you have a specific minimum dosage of medicine that you need to take for it to be effective,” said… read more

December 2, 2016

Disney Research has developed a 360-degree virtual-reality app that enables users to enhance their experience by adding customized haptic (body sensations) effects that can be triggered by user movements, biofeedback, or timelines.

A team led by Ali Israr, senior research engineer at Disney Research, has demonstrated the haptic plugin using a unique chair to provide full body sensations and a library of “feel… read more

December 2, 2016

Using ultrasound to bypass the blood-brain barrier (BBB), Columbia University researchers have succeeded in releasing drugs only in the specific area of the brain where they are needed — not in the rest of the body. The goal is to help treat Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and other neurodegenerative diseases without collateral damage.

The BBB is an impassable obstacle for 98% of drugs, which it treats as pathogens and… read more

November 30, 2016

A new kind of bioluminescent sensor developed by Vanderbilt scientists causes individual brain cells to glow in the dark, giving neuroscientists a new tool to track what’s happening in large neural networks in the brain.

The sensor is a genetically modified form of luciferase, the enzyme that fireflies and other species use to produce light.

Traditional electrical techniques for recording the activity of neurons are limited… read more

These bacteria are responsible for chronic and serious infections in people with lung diseases, such as cystic fibrosis, and in chronic wounds. They also often cause pneumonia for people who are on ventilators and infections in burn… read more

Prevents both thrombosis and spontaneous hemorrhaging; no need for patients to test blood on a regular basis

November 30, 2016

North Carolina researchers have developed a smart skin patch designed to monitor a patient’s blood and release a blood-thinning drug, as needed, to prevent thrombosis (dangerous blood clots).

Thrombosis — one of the leading causes of cardiovascular mortalities and morbidities worldwide — occurs when blood clots disrupt the normal flow of blood in the body, which can cause severe health problems such as pulmonary embolism, heart attack, or stroke.… read more

Could lead to products that are more environmentally friendly and potentially much less expensive; raises questions about alien lifeforms

November 25, 2016

Scientists at Caltech have “bred” a bacterial protein with the ability to make silicon-carbon bonds, with applications in several industries — something only chemists could do before. The research was published in the Nov. 24 issue of the journal Science.

Molecules with silicon-carbon (organosilicon) compounds are found in pharmaceuticals and many other products, including agricultural chemicals, paints, semiconductors, and computer and TV screens. Currently, these products are made… read more

November 25, 2016

University of Central Florida researchers have developed a radical new supercapacitor design that could one day replace lithium-ion batteries, allowing users to charge a mobile phone in a few seconds and with a charge that lasts a week, according to the researchers. The new battery would be flexible and a fraction of the size of a lithium-ion battery.

The proof-of-concept design is based on a hybrid supercapacitor composed of… read more

November 25, 2016

A new machine learning algorithm designed by University of Toronto researchers Parham Aarabi and Wenzhi Guo learns directly from human instructions, rather than an existing set of examples, as in traditional neural networks. In tests, it outperformed existing neural networks by 160 per cent.

Their “heuristically trained neural networks” (HNN) algorithm also outperformed its own training by nine per cent — it learned to recognize hair in… read more

Machine translation breakthrough has been implemented for 103 languages

November 25, 2016

Google researchers have announced they have implemented a neural machine translation system in Google Translate that improves translation quality and enables “Zero-Shot Translation” — translation between language pairs never seen explicitly by the system.

For example, in the animation above, the system was trained to translate bidirectionally between English and Japanese and between English and Korean. But the new system can also translate between Japanese and… read more

Could provide biomarkers to help researchers determine how factors such as disease, the environment, and different experiences impact the brain and change over time

November 18, 2016

Researchers have “fingerprinted” the white matter of the human brain using a new diffusion MRI method, mapping the brain’s connections (the connectome) at a more detailed level than ever before. They confirmed that structural connections in the brain are unique to each individual person and the connections were able to identify a person with nearly 100% accuracy.

The new method could provide biomarkers to help researchers… read more

November 15, 2016

In an experiment at the Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, researchers* have found that transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS) of the brain can improve people’s multitasking skills and help avoid the drop in performance that comes with information overload.

The study was reported in a pre-publication paper in the open-access journal Frontiers of Human Neuroscience. It was motivated by the observation that various… read more

November 15, 2016

Overuse and misuse of antimicrobial agents in hospitals is an urgent problem. Surgeons around the world, who often prescribe antibiotics for surgical prophylaxis, need to take a leadership role in promoting “antimicrobial stewardship programs” (ASPs) that can optimize antimicrobial agent use in the hospital.